Correct me if I am wrong. A dog’s average life expectancy is approximately 7 to 8 years. Based on first hand experience and experiences shared by friends, a rabbit’s average life expectancy is also approximately 7 to 8 years.
Today, the average price of a pedigreed puppy sold in pet stores is $1500. I wonder based on what criteria and reason that rabbits are still considered highly disposable and insignificant pets. Please do not get me wrong. I am not promoting or encouraging pedigreed rabbits to be sold at ridiculous prices. Contrary, I am questioning as to why the rabbit market cannot be elevated higher in terms of quality of both owners’ knowledge and pets at a faster pace.
What frustrates me more is that there are many “parasites” in the market. They are always waiting for someone else to do it and expect to get winning quality stocks for rock bottom prices without giving much thought to the effort, time and money placed into it.
The ideal future for me is that people will be more willing to be proactive and especially to put in much more effort into working with the best. I really hope that one day, Malaysia will have all the rabbit breeds – all 47 listed and recognized by ARBA & 58 listed and recognized by BRC.
And for that to happen, someone must take up the challenge to work with a particular breed. Before that happens, I believe that there should be an interest for these beautiful creatures.
Let’s do some maths shall we? Let’s just say that it takes 1 years to create an interest for a particular breed. If we are talking about BRC’s 58 rabbit breeds, it will take 58 years for all breeds to arrive in our shores. Can you imagine!? I do not think I’ll live till then to see all breeds in Malaysia. What a sad fact.
Luckily we only have another 45 years to go if we want to see all ARBA breeds in Malaysia as we already have 2 on our shores. And that’s if we’ll have a new breed introduced every year which I doubt it for having many people with mere interest and without action.
I guess owning a rabbit is a luxury and people can basically live without rabbits – be it pet or food. I mean, who needs a rabbit when we have CHICKENS in all senses.
hello there,
i’m really excited to read about your post.right now i do have few rabbit breed with me eventhou it’s not a pedigree/show quality standard that is recognize by ARBA or BRC.I own an English anggora and standard rex breed.My plan for the future is to breed E.anggora,rex(mini,standard and giant)and satin and mini lionhead lop.Right now i’m planning to import the breed from London.My friend is staying there and is helping me to get a pedigree breed.I planned to produce a quality rabbit and make the market for this breed to be possible for all..hope to get support from you as we can build a great community for rabbit breeding in Malaysia. I do hope that we don’t need to wait for 40years++ for all the breed to arrive in our shores. Thanks for the knowledge that your had share with us…
I will only give my fullest support to those who breeds responsibly, ethically and are honest with their dealings. Show quality are real show quality and always striving to produce the highest of standards/qualities. If that is your direction make sure you do it well and be focused. That’s my hope for you. Thank you very much for the comments.